“There was not much skin left on his back,” were the words of Bahrain-Victorious’ Matej Mohorič about his team’s GC leader, Santiago Buitrago, who had just crashed in the final few kilometres of stage seven of the Tour de France. The Colombian rider was not the only wounded competitor after the innocuous collision that took place in the select front group on Friday. Among the casualties were Buitrago’s teammate Jack Haig, who was forced to abandon the race, Thursday’s stage winner Ben Healy, UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s João Almeida and Enric Mas of Movistar. Tour de France dreams were dented and dashed in a split second, by just one lapse in concentration, one ruinous touch of wheels.
This is what this race can do; it can give so much but take so much at the same time. Haig and Buitrago were the general classification hopes for Bahrain-Victorious, a team who are desperately in need of some luck to turn a disappointing season around. As Mohorič stated, they had worked hard to get to this point.
“Cycling is cruel sometimes,” the Slovenian said with a wry shake of the head. "As has everyone, they’ve been preparing for these races for many months, and today it’s pretty much all gone to hell for both Jack and Santi.”
For UAE Team Emirates-XRG, the injuries of Almeida could also have a big impact on how they approach the rest of the race. The Portuguese rider was due to act as an invaluable mountain domestique for current yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogačar, but he finished stage seven with the left side of his body raw from the impact of hitting the French tarmac so hard at high speed.
“Nothing ever perfect, João crashed bad, I hope he is ok, he is on his way to X-ray now,” the world champion said of his teammate a few minutes after taking the stage victory in Mûr-de-Bretagne. “In cycling it is so hard to make it all perfect.”
Dr. Adrian Rotunno, UAE Team Emirates Medical Director, has since confirmed: "João suffered a heavy fall in the stage finale today. Thankfully there was no serious injury and he was able to finish the stage. It’s confirmed he has an uncomplicated left-sided rib fracture, as well as some profound abrasions to his body. The next few days will be difficult for him, but at this point, he should be able to start tomorrow’s stage.”
While he will continue to race on in this Tour, Almeida’s injuries will undoubtedly impact his performance as the stages roll on. It was all looking so good for UAE Team Emirates as they controlled Friday’s stage, but with the incident of one of their key climbers, it is clear that things can change very quickly in bike racing. Healy went from a stage win on Thursday to hitting the deck hard just 24 hours later too, for example, while the likes of Louis Barré from Intermarché-Wanty will spend this evening nursing some serious road rash.
As Mohorič himself put it bluntly, these teams and riders have no choice but to move on after today’s incident. The Tour de France waits for no one and tomorrow’s stage will begin regardless of who stands on the start line and how injured any rider is. That is part of the tough, unforgiving game of Grand Tour racing.
“I’ve lived this before, like with Mikel Landa sometimes in the Giro and so on, I’ve been here before,” the 30-year-old said solemnly when questioned on what it is like for a team to lose a general classification contender.
“We reevaluate our goals, we know we still have ambitions to get a stage win with others and we’ll do the best we can. It’s cycling.”
